Welcome, @ChrisThomason and @LiquidSword!
Not overly familiar with Stingrays!? Don’t they come in many “shades” with quite different price tags? Good luck with finding your “own Stingray”!
@LiquidSword: I’d say USD 250-300 will get you a really nice “beginner’s” bass that should last you a while! Happy X-mas shopping!
Oh yeah, they’re three levels of “Stingray” but the lowest of the three is at maximum as good as what I got and IMO not as good as what I got. The middle tier is equal to or a bit better than what I got, but don’t feel the cost/benefit is really worth it. The real deal however, is a lifetime/forever bass and given the reason for the reward, along with its symbolism to my bass playing. It’s real deal or bust for me. Granted that’s $2,500 for someone who at which point will have only recently considered themselves a true “Bass Player.” None the less, its real deal or bust for me. It also helps/serendipitous that Music Man has some incredible financing on the real deal line through the end of next year. 
Hi. I’m Cris from CA. My son has played guitar for a long time, and quit a few times. I feel he felt too much pressure to improve versus just having fun doing it. I thought that if I started to pick up the bass, we could play together, and have more fun doing it.
But he’s starting high school, and they say if your kid has 3-4 friends doing something, then your kid is going to start doing it too. I think the saying is generally a warning about drugs, ditching school, drinking, and/or shoplifting among other things. But my son was hanging out with kids that were taking band in middle school and so, yes, now he’s in his school band. Playing a saxophone with his friends.
But I already bought the bass…so I’m here, enjoying the class, banking on the hope that I’ll get good enough to be cool enough to play with the kids. In the long run, I’m hoping we can play some tunes together. In the short term, mixing in some Careless Whisper tabs with the beginner course.
I hope Bass-a-Claus is very good to you this Christmas!
Welcome to the forum.
Welcome to the forum Hannah! Been digging your enthusiasm in all your comments on the course. Keep it up. 
And to change your photo, just click on your username, go to Preferences, and you can change your avatar image, and your username (if you wanna be just Hannah Walker instead of camphannahwalker or something, for example).
And welcome @LiquidSword! That’s great you got that encouragement from your wife, have fun getting started with bass!
Welcome @ChrisThomason! Having an outlet to play really helps motivate me too, glad you found one, and the Beginner to Badass course! Countdown to Stingray.
Welcome @cbaray! I love that you started bass to help your son have more fun and feel less pressure with music. My parents did a great job keeping the pressure off me even though they’re both professional musicians. I can imagine if I’d felt pressured I might have practiced less just to rebel. 
Hi Josh, my name is Scott Gower. I am a 64 year old guy who has always loved the sound of a bass. I have a beautiful Music Man Sting Ray 5 that has not seen the light of day for 14 years–until last week. I am self taught, and I have always wanted to soar with those people I played with, but I always got stuck on the ground.
I have played in a couple of bands. I could learn a song, but I could never wing it. I would be lost in space as soon as I tried. I always played with phenomenal musicians, so I did not have to be real creative. And I truly enjoyed playing.
I stopped playing though as I got too busy working. I fly for a living, and I just was not around to be able to play. The guitar has sat unused for many years. I was attending an awesome church where there is a band. The sound is phenomenal. I chatted with a guitar player named Keith and he told me that they are always having a challenging time finding a bass player. I got excited and told him that I would love to play with them in a year when I am retired. He said that sounded great.
I got online just surfing around and I thought I would try and find some kind of online lessons. That is when I stumbled onto BassBuzz. Man, am I glad I did. I have begun the beginner’s course and I have determined that I would learn to do things right. I am having a good time. I love the idea of instantly playing music, and I look forward to learning more and more from you.
I too did martial arts for 5 years, but quit when I suddenly realized after having busted ribs a few times, that I did not get paid to do martial arts. I am glad I did, lol, no more busted ribs.
Thanks for this forum too. I look forward to my time here at BassBuzz. Thanks. Scott
@sbgower very nice intro. Welcome to the forum. It’s a great bunch of people who love to help others.
Thanks PamPurrs. I appreciate your welcome. Have a great day!
Welcome Scott @sbgower! Glad you’re enjoying the course and that you’ve got an outlet to go play at that church when you’re ready!
Hi Scott and welcome
Thanks Josh
Thank you Mark
welcome here and nice intro!
Please keep us posted on how you are doing! Welcome!
Brian Zimmer here. I had been watching and learning from Josh’s videos for freeeeeee… eeeee, then met Josh at Victor Wooten’s Bass Camp. I humbly bought Josh $20 worth of fund raiser raffle tickets (lame) hoping he’d win a $$ acoustic bass or other $$ prize. I owe Josh so much more. I was thrilled to meet Josh. I asked Josh at bass camp about the banana tattoo and all I got was a smile. I am in a band and having a blast. We are Otto Parts. We practice weekly and perform periodically. We play hard rock and punk (ie AC/DC, Motorhead, DEVO, Electric Six “the big two”). Good fun. It is not all together challenging bass, but I am proud of our song assemblage. I have boldly stepped up to the mic. Otherwise, I practice bass craft near daily in my basement studio. I usually wake up at 5-5:30am and practice for 1-2 hours before tidying up and slogging to my day job. Plus, [I believe] I learned the significance of the banana.
welcome!
now. sit here, and tell us all you know about the banana. 
Can’t do that. You must find out for yourself.
But, thanks for reading my intro. Josh is great. I belong to another paid-for-bass-geetar-community but I spend more time with Josh.
Shhhh. We don’t talk about the banana. Those who know, don’t ask. Those who ask, don’t know. 
@briezim Welcome. I’m a bit jealous. I want to go to Victor Wooten’s Bass Camp, meet @JoshFossgreen, have a basement studio, and play in a band. Sounds like the Bass life is treating you well. 
It’s Saturday here, so All Tomorrow’s Parties actually do start on Sunday Morning